67 RASSEGNA
DIRIGIBILI
Vittorio Gregotti [Editorial Director]
Vittorio Gregotti [editor]: 67 RASSEGNA: DIRIGIBILI. Milan: CIPIA, 1996. Original edition [anno XVIII, 67 -- 1996/III]. Text in Italian. Quarto. Plain thick wrappers. Printed dust jacket. 98 [xxvi] pp. 134 illustrations. Illustrated articles and advertisments. Interior unmarked and very clean. Out-of-print. Jacket with light wear overall and lower corner bumped. A very good or better copy in publishers dust jacket.
9 x 12 soft cover book with 98 pages and 134 illustrations, some in color. The bulk of the journal [72 pages] is devoted to Airships! Much of the material in this issue comes from the archives of the Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen GmbH.
- Editoriale: Vittorio Gregotti
- Piú Leggeri Dell’Aria: Alberto Bassi e Alfonso Grassi
- Nel Ventre De Dirigibile
- La Forma Della Velocitá: Franz Engler
- I Leviatani Dei Cieli: Wolfgang Meighhörner
- Un Tetto Per La Nave Dell’Aria: Marina Gargaro
An airship or dirigible is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft which can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from large gas bags filled with a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. In early dirigibles, the lifting gas used was hydrogen, due to its high lifting capacity and ready availability. Helium gas has almost the same lifting capacity and is nonflammable, unlike hydrogen, but is rare and relatively expensive. Significant amounts were first discovered in the United States and, for a while, helium was rarely used for airships outside the United States.
This RASSEGNA deals with the rigid airship— the coolest of the three main types of airship: non-rigid, semi-rigid, and rigid. Rigid airships have an outer structural framework which maintains the shape and carries all structural loads, while the lifting gas is contained in one or more internal gas bags or cells. Rigid airships were first flown by Count Zeppelin and the vast majority of rigid airships built were manufactured by the firm he founded. As a result, all rigid airships are sometimes called zeppelins.
Airships were the first aircraft capable of controlled powered flight, and were most commonly used before the 1940s, but their use decreased over time as their capabilities were surpassed by those of aeroplanes. Their decline was accelerated by a series of high-profile accidents, including the 1930 crash and burning of British R101 in France, the 1933 storm-related crash of the USS Akron and the 1937 burning of the hydrogen-filled Hindenburg.
Under the loose directorship of Vittorio Gregotti, Rassegna was an Italian Design magazine underwritten by six Italian firms: Ariston, B&B Italia, Castelli, iGuzzini illuminazione, Molteni and co., and Sabiem. Each issue was devoted to a single designer or theme and lavishly produced, with high-quality reproduction and carefully selected and presented illustrations. [rassegna 7418]